Discuss the implications of cultural differences that help make one country or region different from other.

Culture is composed of the beliefs, values, attitudes and behavior and these components vary from individual to individual. Hence differences in the culture across nations become inevitable. This variation in these cultural components gives rise to a phenomenon known as Cultural Diversity. Cultural Diversity plays a significant role while undertaking business operations internationally. Thus, it becomes necessary for an international manager to understand these cultural differences and manage them effectively. The variations in cultures across nations is caused by different factors/variables. culture is a major influencing factor for the individuals as well as the organizations and that culture across nations differs a lot, so it becomes necessary for each and every international manager to develop a culture-specific understanding about the countries he/she needs to operate in. For this purpose, the approach is to develop a cultural profile of the country with which he/she is to do business. To develop a cultural profile, one needs some familiarity with the cultural variables universal to most cultures. From these universal variables, one can identify specific differences found in each country or people-and hence anticipate their implications for the workplace. We describe eight categories of cultural variables and explain their implications. Kinship A kinship system is the system adopted by a given society to guide family relationships. Some countries may consist of nuclear family culture whereas other may consist of an extended family with many members, spanning many generations. For example, in India the concept of immediate family includes the parents also whereas in USA it only includes husband, wife and their children. Education The formal or informal education of workers in a foreign firm, received from whatever source, greatly affects the expectations placed on those workers in the workplace. Education also influences managers choices about recruitment and staffing practices, training programmes, and leadership styles. Training and development programmes also need to be consistent with the general level of educational preparation in that country. For

example, Russians are excellent learners and possess flair for learning. They are the best people for the jobs that starts with a compulsory instructor-based training. Economy Whatever the economic system, the means of production and distribution in a society (and the resulting effects on individuals and groups) has a powerful influence on such organizational processes such as sourcing, distribution, incentives and repatriation of capital. Politics The system of government in a society imposes varying constraints on the organization and its freedom to do business. It is the managers job to understand the political system and how it affects the organizational processes, to negotiate positions within the system, and to manage effectively the mutual concerns of the host country and the guest company. For example, in country like India where political parties that believe in swadeshi aspect, the MNCs may hesitate to come. Religion The spiritual beliefs of a society are often so powerful that they transcend other cultural aspects. Religion commonly underlies both the moral and economic norms. Association Many and various types of associations emerge out of the formal and informal groups that make up society. Whether these associations are based on religious, social, professional, or trade affiliations, managers should be familiar with them and the role they may play in business interactions. Health The system of health care in a country affects employee productivity, expectations, and attitudes towards physical fitness and its role in the workplace. These expectations will influence managerial decisions regarding health care benefits, insurance, physical facilities, sick days, and so forth. Recreation Closely associated with other cultural factors, recreation includes the way in which people use their leisure time, as well as their attitudes towards leisure and their choice of whom to socialize with. Workers attitudes toward recreation can affect their work

behavior and their perception of the role of work in their lives. For example, in USA people prefer going out on picnics with their immediate family only, for the purpose of recreation. On the other hand, Arabian culture emphasizes upon visiting relatives and friends or calling them over feasts to own place for recreation. Another view of culture, focuses of culture as a set of values and attributes of a given group, and the relation of the individual to the culture, and the individuals acquisition of those values and attributes The individual and the culture in which is lives is a complex set of relationships. On the one side, the individual determines its culture, on the other, it is determined by its culture. By contributing to the culture around him, the individual is part of the cultural change. S.G. Summer introduced the concept of Ethnocentrism early this century: it refers to the tendency that most people see their own culture as the center of the world. Often this phenomenon has been seen as a result of naive thinking, following from the assumption of the world in itself being like it appears to the individual: a set of self-evident rules, roles, categories and relationships, seen as natural. The concept of ethnocentrism is often displayed in the form of nationalism. The National Character/Basic Personality Each nation has its own character, the French are not like the English, and the Dutch not like the Germans. However, the attempt to define what makes each of the characters distinct will provide massive difficulties. The idea of a national character is based on the assumption that people from one nation share basic common behavioral patterns and personality traits, differentiable from other nations. The concept has however been often criticized, and is often only fueled by perceptions of the one nation towards the other, resulting in a number of attributes that one nation apparently displays: the Germans are orderly, hard-working and humorless... However, findings in that field have been often contradictory, particularly from highly diversified cultures. The methodological difficulties may be one of the reasons why the term national character has widely been replaced with basic personality or social character in modern literature. The two later concepts, although also often deemed as equally unreliable, stem from the idea that the child is being subject to cultural influence during his early stages, and hence develops a basic personality similar in various cultures. Equally the social character concept tries to identify the common character structures of a culture.

Perception Perception is not a passive, objective and neutral process. Every perception is seen as an active process: what is perceived is becoming part of the subjective experience, embedded into the whole of the personality structure of that person, including whatever the persons development process, his cultural and material environment has given him or her as ways of thinking and viewing things. The human being distinguishes actively between important and unimportant: perceives objects actively and clearly, while others are only partially perceived or ignored. Visual perception is one of the traits where the culture specific view objects is clearly demonstrated: Most Europeans will have difficulties distinguishing for example Japanese faces. The culture has a significant impact on the concepts of time. Time can either be perceived as linear (western perception) or circular (eastern perception). Equally the orientation, or outlook, of the culture can be focused on either the past, the present or the future. Another concept is the notion of monochronic and polychromic time conception. The monochronic time concept follows the notion of one thing at a time and time is money, while the polychronic concept focuses on multiple tasks are handled at one time, and time is subordinate to interpersonal relations. Space Concepts The question of how we perceive space is equally depending of the culture. The western cultures focus their attention on objects, and neglect the space in-between. The Japanese, on the other hand, honor the space in-between as ma. In a different system, the Hopi Indians have in their language no words for a fixed room: all objects are described in their relation to each other, but no concept of a three dimensional space exists. Also the way we deal with space is different. The concepts of the private space, the space orientation, the interpersonal distance and the space design. Thinking The way we think equally depends, and is influenced by the culture. Most of classical Western thinking is based on the Aristotelian view of logic: analytical, linear and rational. Other cultures

emphasize a more complex set of logic, which can be described as holistic, associative and affective. While inductive thinking evolves from the particular and evolves into a theoretical model, concepts or theories, the deductive thinking established overall concepts first, which are then proven by specific, empirical findings. Deductive thinking is usually associated with the Latin American, Arab and Eastern European cultures. The vision of the abstract or the concrete is another dominant model in thinking. Western cultures in particular have developed a highly abstract way of thinking, largely loose of emotions. Concrete thinking models however favor a more plastic, emotional way of thinking. Values Most of our actions and behavior is based on values, on what is perceived as evil, good or neutral. The categorization of behavior in those categories is of course different in various cultures. People of all times and in all societies have a limited amount of problems, for which they have to find solutions.

Social Institutions Countries differs considerably in the kind of social institutions they have e.g., the way their education system functions, the way financial system works, the structures of governance etc. which have a direct impact on how business is conducted in that country. These social institutions are important artifacts of the culture and often embody its basic values and assumptions. Example- Education System in Germany has a heavy emphasis on technical and apprenticeship training, which can be historically traced back to the artisan's guides of the Middle Age. This system focus on imparting hands on technical skills in which the students get assigned at the very early age, beside this it also influences the business practices by bringing the specific set of skills into job market. Public Policy and legal framework:- The government policies and legal frameworks of different countries also reflects the cultural values of the country. These influences the business practices in 2 ways: a) They determine the broader framework for doing business in the country.

b) They influence and circumscribe the management practices with in the company. Cultural values also influence the interpretation and implementation of the laws. It determines the nature of the laws, which have direct implication for management practices within the company. Societal Cultural Values The most pervasive impact on the business culture and practices in a country comes from the broad cultural values of the society. These values influence the business in different ways at different levels. At macro level cultural values allow certain kinds of business to flourish, while not providing the right climate for others. The cultural values of the society define the meaning and reason of business and how it is organized. In many cultures, high profits and market capitalization are not the criteria for doing business. Such cultural difference has direct impact on the Strategic Orientation of companies across cultures. Example: - While US Companies emphasizes more on the profit dividends And stock prices, Japanese companies focus more on new product development and market share. The cultural values also influence how the business is organized and conducted in the societies. In collective societies for instance, personal contacts play an important role in conducting business. In China people conduct business based on personal relationship. At the end the cultural values have a major influence on the way people relate to each other and what they aspire for in a job. In many hierarchical cultures (e.g. India, Japan etc) the meaning and value of job lies in the status more than in the pay packet. In these countries people also expect to be recognized for their seniority and age. on the other hand in more egalitarian cultures ( USA, Germany etc) people expect rewards and compensation for their performance than their seniority.

Therefore it is evident that developing people to adapt to and operate across business cultures of different countries, require an appreciation of aspects which are deeper and more pervasive than just cross cultural differences in behavior. While an understanding of differences in behavioral orientation and etiquettes help people in becoming cross culturally literate but to develop truly cross culturally educated global managers, it is essential to provide an understanding into the deeper structures which mould the culture.